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Nancy!

Sorry, I am still swamped with work and have no time for serious blogging – so consider the clip below a “commercial break.”

When I was at the Dead Sea in Jordan last March, Nancy Ajram's  Einteh Eh (What Are You) was played over and over at the Movenpick Hotel's outdoor cafe. It was a great accompaniment to nargileh smoke, mint tea and conversation. Nancy's rather interesting Wikipedia entry is here.

Enjoy the beautiful people and glamorous clothes. A translation of the lyrics is here.

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7 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. tell me about it, having no time for serious blogging. my blog has turned into 'take a silly break with laila' these days..
    so i just wanted to say that i love nancy. she's cute and her voice is not bad, and the videos are cool too.
    hello from the far east.

    1. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  2. I like Nancy. I don't buy her albums, but I like her. This has got to be her best song, I think. I like the video because, while it is a fashion show, it at least shows the 'heroine' as vulnerable. Most other videos from the region try and show the hero/ine as models/jigalos/super-human. And she's not dumb like many reports try and paint her. She's real. And cute. In that young child growing up to be a woman sort of way.

    2. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  3. Laila, I am so jealous that you're in Bangkok. It's one of my favourite cities – maybe second to Tel Aviv.
    PR – Yup, I agree that this is Nancy's best song. The guy who plays her cheating husband in the clip is gorgeous, too. ;)

    3. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  4. The Nancy Ajram phenomenon is a very significant one to the middle east, this region so touched by religion and by taboos! All the new young female singers in the arab world are kind of participating in the huge social developpement that was impossible 10 Years ago! And the fact that Arab TV stations don't hesitate to show the video clips of these artists, Video clips that ignore a lot of Taboos of the arab world, is a very good sign of future opening to the rest of the ” Developped” world! I'm crossing my fingers so that one day we reach the point of cultural “Normalisation” with the West! Not because the culture of the west is the best , its far away from being the best, but because its only by crossing different cultures together that we will reach understandings on a lot of things and avoid the so called ” Shock of Civilisations”….
    There is another interesting side of this Phenomenon : No matter how bloody the israeli arab conflict is, In israel, people listen to artists from Lebanon, from Syria, from Egypt…. and on the other hand, some middle eastern countries use israel's Sarit Haddad's music …I was at a Club in Amman and i was shocked when i heard ” Yala lech ha bayta motti” or a remix of HaSmachot's ” Yuda yuda ya yuda” …. mixed with Arabic MUSIC!!!!In the Palestinian terriroties, we happen to listen to Israeli hebrew music too….Anyways, it is very interesting, maybe we are fighting on all the grounds but what is for sure is that music is bringing us closer! That's what i call The light at the end of the tunnel!

    4. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  5. I also like Nancy. I would have hoped for a better ending though. It's not my kind of Heroinne that accepts a cheating husband. Wasn't the characters (especially her's) typically conservative and traditional? Are you all just blinded by her modern clothes that you cannot see that her behaviour is as “old-fashioned” as always?
    The real progress would be if the woman stod up for herself and her rights (and that some men stop up with them as well), not to show more vidoe-clips. And especially not those who preserve old ideas in new “clothes”.
    Enough about the video. The song is beautiful and it brings back memories.

    5. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  6. I can't say I agree with you completely. as some one else mentioned, her video is different than videos of other female singers. I've seen tons of videos in which the heroinne beats the hell out of the cheating husband/boyfriend etc and I have to say that's a bit cliche, though maybe to some people a fun video. even though I probabely wouldn't do the same if I were her, I don't think what she's doing is traditional. Im persian and I understand that traditional women tend to ignore the cheating husband just to keep the peace and quiet of their home. They are afraid of losing their husband because they depend on him financially and because they're afraid of what's going to happen to their children after a divorce/ break up, who's gonna take care of them and/or the children and what will people think of a divorced/single mother.
    In this video though, you don't see that weakness. there's no sing of dependency or children, and it doesn't seem like Nancys afraid of losing her family or children etc
    She just simply ignores the fact that her husband is cheating on her with her best friend because she still loves him and she can't bring herself to accept the fact that he is cheating. She cries because she can't take the betrayal, not because she now has to look for a place to sleep in at nights nor because she wonders what people will think. I hope that made sense lol

    6. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
  7. That was great! Thank you, Lisa.
    Also, thank you for the commentary, Ramzi, I was thinking about the cultural importance of this video and the one from Haifa the other day and you've articulated a clear answer to some of my questions.

    7. Anonymous
    on March 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am

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